“Another example of the decline of the Methodist Church into the mire of secular humanism. Any good ones left in congregations should be embarrassed enough by this action to leave.”
Many local Methodist congregations are very conservative. My Mom, Sister, and several nieces are devout Methodists and all are strong conservatives. The support the local church but send no funds to the national Methodist organization.
This is - or at least was - the case with many small town and rural ELCA (Lutheran) churches as well. These local congregations were, by-and-large, traditional; as the more conservative pastors were removed through attrition, their replacements were generally new (left-leaning, if not socialist) products of the ELCA seminaries. The UMC hierarchy was taken over by leftists at an earlier date, but the ELCA's pact with the Episcopalians gave them a tremendous push towards the door of apostacy. The trend is obvious.
"I don't give the national organizations money," is a natural response, but the national bodies are very adept and assiduous when it comes to getting their shekels; one may believe the contents of the collection plate are staying well within the circle of the beloved and familiar, but wishful thinking counts for very little. The local congregations still pay for the "progressive" phagocytization of their church "home."
Nowadays, it appears that the more fundamentalist churches are being co-opted by the left through the likes of Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo and Rick Warren. The apostle Paul is clear enough about the wolves in sheep's clothing, and I see for myself more of these predators moving into what is popularly (if not accurately) described as "evangelical" church communities; the wolf population is growing and spreading to where there are enough remaining sheep to eat.
Mr. niteowl77
The Methodist heirarchy has the same stranglehold on their member churches as the RC's. Keep in mind that the local congregation does not own their buildings and they do not hire their pastors.
The diaspora from the UMC has become a deluge, a torrent, a river of souls pouring out of the maw of this godless institution.
My understanding is that, if they support the local church they support the national church since the national church assesses, thru their districts, every church a certain and sizable amount .
Hillary claims to be a devout Methodist, but then she’s an habitual liar.
“The support the local church but send no funds to the national Methodist organization.”
a growing trend among methodists
Same here. I am a Methodist, although not from a traditional congregation. If we embrace every belief of ANY denomination, we are straying from God’s word. What we have to do is get involved where we can serve and let the doctrine be the worry of people why worry about such things.
The Methodists are wrong to seek to punish the people of a nation because they disagree with some aspect of the government there. Israel has a right to exist, and the people there have a right to do business on the free market.